Six LM P2 teams took to the track with British outfit Manor the busiest of them all. They called up all three drivers – Roberto Mehri, Matt Rao and Tor Graves – to hone the various driver changeover procedures with a view to minimising the time spent in the pits during the race.

Extreme Speed Motorsport with #31 only

American team ESM, who are entering two Ligier JS P2-Nissan prototypes in the race, put Luis Felipe Derani out on track with the race engine installed in car #31. Meanwhile Ricardo Gonzalez, boss of Mexican outfit RGR Motorsports by Morand, took the wheel of the #43 Ligier JS P2-Nissan himself during the morning.

Michael Shank Racing on track

Another American team, Michael Shank Racing, gave John Pew an afternoon at the wheel of the #49 Ligier JSP2-Honda that had crashed on Sunday. Two days of intense work had made the car as good as new, as confirmed by the afternoon’s run, much to the team’s relief.

A few laps for Panis-Barthez Compétition and Alpine

Also during the afternoon, Panis-Barthez Compétition sent Timothé Buret out between showers to check that everything was OK on the #23 Ligier JS P2 after a change of engine and gearbox. Similarly the two Alpine teams put in a few laps late in the day to check the installation of the race engine in their Alpine A 460 prototypes. The #35 was tested by Chinese driver Ho-Pin Tung and the #36 by American Gustavo Meneves and Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre, LM P2 class winner in 2015 at the wheel of an Oreca 05 that had provided the inspiration for the new A 460.

 

American Michael Shank, owner of the team fielding the #49 Ligier, kept a watchful eye on the assembly operations Tuesday morning while OAK Racing director Philippe Dumas monitored operations for Extreme Speed Motorsport who only had #31 out on track. Alpine’s Stéphane Richelmi and Nelson Panciatici were unable to join the fun as they were in the Paris studios of French sports TV channel L’Equipe 21.

 

In the absence of John Booth, Manor Sporting Director Graeme Lowdon outlined the team’s schedule for the day, which differed somewhat from the other LM P2 and the LM P1 teams’ plans, as the outfit learns the ropes in endurance racing after several years’ involvement in Formula One.

Graeme Lowdon, Sporting Director, Manor Endurance Racing Ltd: In the other FIA WEC rounds, our drivers are split into different line-ups as we run two cars whereas, here, we have just got #44. Today gives us a chance to get acclimatised to the circuit and to the pit entry and exit procedures. The main thing is that the drivers get in tune with each other on fuel changes. The very high standard in LM P2 means that every pit stop will have an impact on the result. The car is the same as it was on Sunday and we’ll be putting it into its race configuration from tonight.